New national tour of ‘Man of La Mancha’ comes to Providence Performing Arts Center

Posted
Wednesday, January 29, 2014 1:19 pm

“Man of la Mancha” returns to the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) in an all-new production of the Tony Award winning musical that has inspired audiences since the very first notes of “The Impossible Dream” were heard on opening night.

“Man of la Mancha” runs February 14-16 for five performances only and is part of the Contemporary Classics Series, sponsored by Cox Communications. Tickets are on sale now at the PPAC Box Office (220 Weybosset St. in downtown Providence), online at www.ppacri.org and by phone at 421-ARTS (2787). Tickets are $69to $32; all ticket prices include a $3 per ticket restoration charge. Discounted admission is available for groups of 20 or more; for additional information, contact Group Sales Representative Paul Hiatt at phiatt@ppacri.org or 574-3162.

“Man of la Mancha” is the winner of five Tony Awards including Best Musical, along with the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award. United Press International calls “Man of la Mancha” “Musical theatre at its finest. A triumph,” and New York Daily News says, “The musical that’s set above and apart by all others by touching the heart! An exquisite musical play.”

This play-within-a-play is based on Cervantes’s Don Quixote and tells the story of a man who against all odds sees good and innocence in a world filled with darkness and despair. Enter the mind and the world of Don Quixote as he pursues his quest for the impossible dream: Miguel de Cervantes, aging and an utter failure, has been thrown into a dungeon in Seville to await trial by the Inquisition for an offense against the church. But first he must face a kangaroo court of his fellow prisoners: thieves, cutthroats and trollops who propose to steal his meager possessions, including the unfinished manuscript of a novel called Don Quixote. Cervantes, seeking to save it, proposes a form of an entertainment. The “court” agrees and, before their eyes, Cervantes and his faithful manservant transform themselves into Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. They proceed to play out the story with the participation of the prisoners as other characters, Quixote and Sancho taking to the road, to restore the age of chivalry, to battle evil, and right all wrongs.

“Man of la Mancha” played for 2,328 performances in New York at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre and on Broadway at the Martin Beck, Eden and Mark Hellinger Theatres starring Richard Kiley and Joan Diener. Kiley and Diener repeated the success at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in 1972, and the show has since been revived on Broadway several times, most recently at the Martin Beck Theatre with Brian Stokes Mitchell in the title role. The show played for 253 performances in London at the Piccadilly Theatre. For additional information, visit www.columbiaartiststheatrical.com or www.ppacri.org.